baily



Jan. 1, 1929. 1,696,900

T. F. BAILY CONTINUOUS SHEET HEATING FURNACE Filed April 20, 1926 3Shees-Sheet 1 Jan. 1, 1929.

T. F. BAILY CONTINUOUS SHEET HEATING FURNACE Jan. 1, 1929. 1,696,900

T. F. BAILY CONTINUOUS SHEET HEATING FURNACE Filed April 20, 1926 5Sheets-Sheet 3 toa Z [Baily \%14M W/M MW Patented Jul 1, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

mmmns r. nm'r, or ALLIANCE, omo. consumers snnar-nsarme summon.Application min April so, was serial No. 108,280.

4.5 [The furnace built of any suitable The invention relates to furnacesfor continuously heating.- or heat treating sheets, lates and thelikp'and is especially adapted or continuous annealing of sheets,

6 z The object of the improvement is to prvide'a-furnace having anendless conveyer for continuously passing sheets and the like, throughthe heating chamber,"the conve or be in the form of chains lobatedoutside of e refractory walls of the furnace and driven b means ofsprockets also located outside of "refractory walls, the chains beingconnected together at close intervals by bars or tubes of heat resistinmaterial extended 1 through endless slots in t side walls of thefurnncqand located entirely across the heating chamber to support thesheets and convey them continuously through the heating 20. side wallsof the furnace, as well as the roof, arocarried upon su' ports entirelyoutside of the furnace, and &e chains are boxed in 'gas tight housings,provided with rails on which the chains travel; feed and discharge irolls being located at the ends of the furnace, operating at the saineperipheral speed as the conveyor and forming a substantially gas tightentrance and exit tothe heatin chamber;'" means being provided forre flyrcmoving the sheet supporting bars whlch couple the conveyor chainstogether.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which ml, Figure l'is a transverse sectional Viewthroughthe improved furnace, taken substantially on the line 1-1, Fig.2;

- Fig.. a vertical longitudinal section through the furnace takensubstantially on m theline 2-2 Fig.1,and; I

' Fig. 8 a plan sectionahview of the.fnrnace taken s tially on they line33, Fig. 2.

similannumerals refer to similar parts through'the draw 'refra materialctmprisin'g' the bottom 1 (lg-$3115 25nd roofs preferolely arched, ofwhich may beehclosed, 'm the usual ins'naeniaa teel asin -i.

so portion 1 of thefurnace may rest upon a suitable base support such asthe channels 5, and an elongate-ovate slot 6, is formed in each sidewall, maki it necessa to support the side walls, as we as the recindependently of the bottom portion, of the furnace.

To accomplish this, angle members 7, carried in the side walls and roof,are connected to the vertical sections 8 and-9, of channels or similarstructural members as by rivets 10, these sections of channels beingconnected,

as by the rivets 11, to upright structural supports, such as thechannels 12 which are spaced upon each side of the furnace. f :Thechannel uprights are held in spacedpbsition and tied together at theirupper ends at; by the horizontally disposed channels 13; 'lfhus theentire side walls-and roof are supchamber. In carrying out the inventionthe ported independently of each other and of the bottom of thefurnace-upontheupright 12 channel supports permitting the slots 6 to beunobstructe thrbughout their entire lengths.

, A boxing or housing 14 of the same shape, and registering with each ofthe slots 6, is mounted between each side wall and thead- 'acent uprightsupports 12, each of these ousings being formed of channels or the likeand bei entizjxly enclosed from the outside atmosp ere, open to thefurnace atmosphereonl through the slots 6.

A track, pre erably 1n the form ofan angle 15, is mounted in eachhousing, and normally held against lateral movement therein as by thefiller blocks 16, removable lates 17 being provided in the side walls ofe housus ing to provide access thereto as will be later described.

For the purpose oficontinuously conve ing material such as sheets,plates and t 0 like, thnough the furnace, an endless con- 00 veyer isrovided consisting ofian endless ohainlfi ocated ineach housing 14 andarrangedlo ride upon the angle track lfitherel in. The pins 19, whichconnect the links of each chain together are preferably iixed with 96relation to one link and pivoted with relation to the adjacent link:Each of these pins is provided with a pintle 20, upon the side to.- wardthe furnace, supporting bars, preferably in the form of the tubes 21,being con-g 19o nected at opposite ends to these pintles and extendingtransversely through the furnace and through the slots 6. For thepurpose of driving thisjconveyer, each chain passes over .a sprocket.wheel located in each end of the corresponding housing 1'4, theSprocket. wheels being thus located out of the furnace atmosphere and atthe same time'cut oli' from the outside atmosphere, so that if desired.a reducing or non-oxidizing atmosphere may be maintained within thefurnace chamber.

Eachpair of these sprockets is mounted upon a shaft 23, these shaftsbeing the only portion of the driving apparatus which extends'throughthe furnace chamber. A worm gear 24 may be fixed upon the forward ordriving shaft 23 meshing with a worm upon the shaft of the motor 26, allof which driving mechanism is locatedoutside of the furnace, and thusnot subjected'to the f urnace temperature. i

The heating chamber 27 of the furnace may be maintained at thedesiredxtempera- For the purpose of feeding the sheets or.

the like, indicated at S to the furnace and onto the endless conveyor,and then out at the other end of the furnace feed-in and discharge rollsill and 3:2 are provided, thepineh of these rolls being substantiallyin-the same horizontal plane as the tops of the:supporting barstllil'laeh pair of these rolls is located in an 'opening 33, in the adjacentend wall 34, and this opening is substantially scaled as by the pivotedcounterweighted plates 35 which may be provided with a lining 36 ofasbest s or the like, engaging the peripheries ol tnerolls, tll'islining preventing abrasion of the surfaces of the rolls:

ln operating thefurnace the sheets are passed, one at a time, into thefeed-in rolls 31 which feed the she=t onto the conveyor as shown in Fig.2, the sheet resting upon the rounded surfaces .of thc supportin" bars21 i as they are carried through the heatlngchamher, thcse rounded barsconveying the sheet through the furnace without scratching or alu-adingthc surface thereof. As each sheet iasscs from the endless convevcr-itis received by the discharg rolls 32' which convey the shoot out of thefurnace.

l 'rom the above it will be obvious that the chains of the conveyerarelocated outside of the refractory furnace walls and within the housingswhich close the same oli from the outside atmosphere, and as th.-entrance and exit of the,fi |rnace are substanl ially sealed by thefccd-in and feed-out rollers and hinged plates a reducing ornon-oxidizing atmospherc may be lnaintaim-d within the furnace chamber.

In the crentjit is desired to-remove or replace any of the sheetsupporting bars 21, one of the philcs IT is removed and thecorresponding lillerblock 16 is taken out of the housing permitting thetrack 15 to be moved laterally a suliicient distance to allow thedesired bar or bars to be removed from the chains.

1 claim:

1'. In a continuous annealing furnace hav-' ing refractory walls, aplurality of chains located outside of'the refractory walls uponopposite sides of the furnace and fastened to gether at close intervalswith heat resis'tin members extending into the furnace. an adapted tosupport the material to be'trcated, the chains operating in housingsenclosed from the outside atmosphere.

2. In a continuous annealing furnace having refractory walls, aplurality of chains located outside of the refractory walls uponopposite sides of the furnace and fastened to-- gethcr at closeintervals with heat resisting members extending into' the furnace andadapted to support the material to be treated, the slieet supportingmembers being rounded on the surface touching the sheets.

3. In-a continuous annealing furnace having refractory walls, aplurality of chains tocatcd outside of the refractory walls uponopposite sides of the furnace and fastened together at close intervalswith heat resisting bars extending into the furnace and adapte tosupport the material to be treated, the sheet supporting bars beingfixed against movement. with relation to the chains.

4. in a furnace having refractory walls chains located beyond therefractory walls on opposite sides of the furnaceand connected togetherthrough the furnace with heat resisting supporting members passingthrough two slots at each side of the furnace, the wad of the furnacebetween the slots, and the roof,

being carried independently of the remainder of the walls.

5. In a furnace having refractory walls, conveyer chains located outsidethe refractory walls of the furnace and tied together. by heatresistingsupporting bars traversing substantially the entire inner length of thefurnace and pairs of feed and dischar' e rolls substantially in linewith the upper sides of the supporting bars.

6. A furnace having endless slots in opposite refractory side walls;means for supporting the portion of therel'ractolywall between the slotsindependently of the remainder of the side wall and a refractory archengaging the inner sides of the portions of the refractory Walls betweenthe slots.

7. In a furnace of the character described,

5 pairs of shtet feedin rolls at the entrance and discharge ends and aconveyer chain located entirely inside the furnace chamber for conveyingthe sheets through the furnace chamber, said entrance and dischargerolls operating at the same peripheral speed as 10 the speed of thechain.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

THADDEUS F. BA

